From North to South: Crossing the Border

At 3:28 p.m. yesterday afternoon we crossed into South Carolina, a little southeast of Charlotte. We decided yesterday morning that we were ready to head south, see the girls, and pick up summer at home where we had left it.

The day started in Lumberton. We traveled through little towns and by farms to get to pottery territory in Randolph County. For those of you who do not know, this area has been famous for its pottery since the early days of our country. The clay in the region was good for making crocks and jugs. The jugs, of course, were used to contain spirits, for medicinal purposes, don't you know!

We found that many of the potters now close on Monday, but we did find what we were looking for at Potts close to Seagrove and at Frog Town pottery. After lunch at Jugtown Cafe, we headed south to the border.

Now, all that is left is mulling over the trip and putting making our awards. Yesterday we added "Best Privy" to our categories. We will have ample time to do this while we travel to Commerce, Macon, and home today.

Father's Day on the Road: Lighthouses, Rain Storm, and More Piney Woods

We awoke this morning with lighthouses on the mind. We thought we were headed to Bald Island Lighthouse using our navigational device. Instead we arrived at Oak Island Lighthouse, the next one on our list. The small parking lot was full, but I got out of the car and took pictures.

This is the most modern of the seven, six still working, North Carolina lighthouses. It was built in 1958 and cost one hundred ten thousand dollars. built of poured concrete, the colors are permanent. The first 40 feet are poured grey Portland cement. The next 50 feet are white Portland cement with white quartz aggregate. The top 52 feet are grey Portland cement with black coloring. Oak Island lighthouse looks like a huge tube with a light on top, quite modern. Instead of a spiral staircase, there are ships ladders leading to the top.

The Garmin told us to continue on the same road to the ferry. So we continued to the end of the road where we found the Baptist Assembly Grounds who had a helpful guard at the entrance. He said he had been getting people who were using gps, Mapquest, and other directions who were all being sent to the wrong place. He gave us good instructions which got us to the Deep Water Marina in Southport.

The Bald Island Transportation Company operates the ferry which is strictly a passenger ferry. The tickets are not cheap, but this is a business, not a state run service. We were on the 12:30 ferry and could watch the lighthouse getting closer and closer as we curved around by Oak Island on the right and another island on the left before we docked 23 minutes later. We left the ferry and walked to the lighthouse in the 90 degree plus sunshine.

The Bald Island Lighthouse, "Old Baldy", the oldest working North Carolina lighthouse, was built in 1817 for sixteen thousand dollars. It is 109 feet 10 3/4 inches tall, built of bricks, and covered with cement. The spiral staircase is yellow pine. It looks like a large hexagon on the outside and the walls are extremely thick. Some of the cement is worn away on the outside which makes it look like it has bald spots. The name Bald Island actually came from the shape of the dunes on the south beach.

Less than five minutes after walking back to the dock, we were boarded on the next ferry. We stood on deck enjoying the wind and watched the lighthouse recede into the distance as we wound our way back around the islands to Southport.

Two minutes after we left the terminal the skies opened up, drenching us on our way back to the car. Fortunately we had made our trip in just under two hours, so our parking was free. It was raining so hard as we went back through town that we didn't stop for lunch. We finally found a place to eat in the edge of Lumberton on NC Hwy 41.

Pier 41 is a place frequented mostly by locals. The owner stopped by our table and gave us directions to where we could find motels. He told us that they tried to serve 1000 patrons each Saturday and Sunday. Their prices are quite reasonable, their portions large, and their service friendly. It is a place we would frequent if it were close to home, but we would order less food!

Klep enjoyed Father's Day phone calls from his sons. He says he has had a good day.

New Bern: A Trip to the First State Capital of North Carolina

We will start off with a little history about New Bern which was the first state capital. It was an early port. The Neuse River opens into the Pamlico sound at New Bern. Another important fact is that Pepsi Cola was invented here. It had the first fire department, postal service, public bank, incorporated school, and printing press in North Carolina. This town has been used widely by native son Nicholas Sparks in his novels: The Notebook, The Wedding, and A Bend in the Road. The town, founded by Swiss and German immigrants, was named after Berne, Switzerland.

We headed toward New Bern this morning planning a busy day. After our stop at the Tryon Palace Way Station to get tickets, we headed across the street, through the ornate gate, and down the wide driveway toward the rebuilt first government building of North Carolina that was used first by the governor appointed by King George III and later by the first few elected governors of the new state of North Carolina. Tryon includes three major brick buildings: the residence and state rooms, the stables, and the kitchen.

The kitchen was a lovely bright room with a wide fireplace large enough to accommodate seven fires. It had all the "modern" conveniences of the 1700's including a weight balanced wind up spit for roasting meat, a brick baking oven, and a device for using reflected heat to roast with.

The stable is the only original structure. All structures are on their original foundations, however. Fire destroyed the main building and it was rebuilt according to the original plans in 1950.

We were met at the door by a guide in colonial dress who took us through the rooms of the two floors and down to the basement. We got a good look at the elegant lives of the first inhabitants, the Tryons.

Behind the main building stretching all way down to the river are the gardens. Although we enjoyed the wonderful antique furniture, the outdoor space was really more delightful for us. There were mazes, herb gardens, large vistas of lawns, a kitchen garden with all sorts of vegetables, a goodly sprinkling of statuary, and wonderful trees. We saw artichokes growing for the first time. The plant was surprisingly tall.

After the palace, we toured two of the old homes, a Georgian and a Federalist. The John Wright Stanly house was build in 1780 by a powerful businessman who only enjoyed living in the beautiful symmetrically balanced Georgian house for nine years since he died in 1789 of yellow fever. This house was moved from its first location a few years ago.

The George W. Dixon house was built by a tailor and store owner who lost his house to foreclosure in the depression of 1837. He and his family lived in the house for about seven years along with a group of orphans whom he apprenticed in the tailor trade. This house was three stories high with each floor less elegant than the last. This house was built where it stands today.

After our house tours we walked over to the North Carolina History Center where we enjoyed a late lunch at Lawson's Landing Riverwalk Cafe. The made from scratch soups and the wraps were delicious. We watched the river as we ate and topped our meal off with a cone of lemon ice cream.

The shuttle took us back to our starting place where we walked through several more yard gardens which were beautifully colorful with blooming annuals and perennials.

We decided to try to fit in one more lighthouse before we called it a day. We swept down US Hwy 70 to Morehead City, Beaufort, and to Harkers Island where we discovered we were a little too late to get the private ferry to the Island where the the Cape Lookout Lighthouse is. We could see it across the sound, however, so we got our photo, checked it off the list, and pointed the car toward US 17 in Jacksonville, making a brief detour through the water front area of Beaufort to enjoy the old buildings and elegant houses.

We passed acre after acre of Camp Lejeune, a whole lot of urban sprawl, and found our Holiday Inn Express. We finished off our traveling pound cake along with some of our South Georgia peaches and a few strawberries. Now we are tucked in for the night and will head to the last North Carolina lighthouse tomorrow.

Beach, Rain, Ferry, and Mainland

Lightning and thunder briefly awakened us on Ocracoke Thursday night. We awakened to a bright morning, perfect for a walk along the beach at the National Seashore. We picked up a few shell, stuck our toes into the cold Atlantic, and tossed bits of bread to the sea gulls as they swooped, curved, and deftly snatched the bits before they hit the ground.

After leisurely watching the ten o'clock ferry slip into and out of the Silver Pond Marina, we packed up and planned to walk up the street to a little cafe when a deluge of rain changed our plans. When it did not stop, we dashed through it to the car and drove. Although a little damp, we enjoyed our delicious soft shell crab sandwich on ciabatta bread with prosciutto and fresh garnishes. The home chips and coleslaw were also excellent.
We took our reserved place in line for the Cedar Island Ferry and pulled out of dock at one. We were where we could enjoy the breezes and the view from the car. We reclined our seats and the ride lulled us into a little afternoon siesta. We disembarked at 3:30, returned to Hwy 12 and headed toward Havelock through marsh land and sparsely settled areas. When we passed part of Cherry Point Marine Station, we knew we were close to our motel.

We were blessed by the sight of a Dairy Queen. Klep pulled in, got our blizzards, and we were soon at a very new, very nice Holiday Inn Express. Some sort of model air plane flying thing was going on out back, so Klep walked down to watch. Today we have gardens on the agenda and then we have to make a decision about where we will head next.

Photos

Leaving the Hollar At the North Carolina State Line



Klep walks the Appalachian Trail Barbara discovers mountain laurel



Dugger Creek Falls View from ElkMountain


A view from an overlook Floyd's barbershop in Mt Airy


Main Street - Mt Airy Pretty Spot on Main St

First Flight,Elizabethan Garden, Lighthouses,and the Ferry

The last light is fading in the sky now that the fiery ball sank into Silver Lake with a colorful panorama entertaining us for almost an hour. In about an hour the almost waning full moon will light the sky over Ocracoke Island, the southernmost island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. When we got off the ferry this afternoon, we knew that we had found what we hoped to find in the Outer Banks.

After we got to Nags Head yesterday, we made a trip to the northern part of the island to see the Currituck lighthouse, one that remains unpainted natural brick and contains at least a million bricks. Built in 1875, Currituck is the northernmost the North Carolina lighthouses. People were climbing to the top, but we opted to enjoy it from the ground.

On the way back down the island as we crawled down the congested highway, I caught a picture of the sunset out the car window.



This morning, we had an agenda, and we clicked things off. First up was the site of
the four Wright Brothers' flights with, of course, the visitors center and exhibits. We liked the old buildings where the airplanes were maintained. The wind was blowing a good clip. We could understand why they chose this place.

Next up was Roanoke Island which was just as congested as Nags Head. We could not find a parking place any where near the main part of town in Manteo, so we looked out the windows and drove on out to the Elizabethan Gardens which were a wonderful oasis of beauty with sweeping old live oaks, herbs, hydrangeas, roses, hedge mazes, statues, water features, bird song, and butterflies. I was able to pick up some ideas from the garden which I am sure Klep will enjoy putting into Mosquito Gardens.

Back through town and over the bridge and causeway we turned south on Hwy 12. We had used up 158. We soon left the congestion and entered some of the national seashore where we located our next lighthouse, the Bodie Island Lighthouse. This lighthouse is painted with wide bands of black and white bands around the building and was completed in 1872. Klep had an interesting conversation with the son of the last keeper before it became automated. He told us that when he was growing up, his summers on the Island were as close as a kid could get to heaven on this earth. During the winters, they lived on the mainland and his dad went back and forth by boat, but come summer, they moved to the island. The houses used by the keeper and his help are still on the site.
Further down the road we left the federal land and started seeing villages. We stopped and I had an oyster po'boy which challenged my ability to get my mouth open wide enough to eat it! We had discovered how good the local seafood was last night, and today's experiences did not disappoint.

Our last lighthouse before boarding the ferry at Hatteras was the Cape Hattarus Lighthouse at Buxton which is 198 feet tall and was completed in 1870. this lighthouse was moved in 1999 because of erosion. It is painted like a black and white candy cane with black and white spirals.




We drove to the end of Hwy 12 on the island and pulled into the ferry lane where we watched the first two ferries fill while we awaited our turn. We had a smooth crossing, enjoying watching the pelicans dive into the water for food as we approached Ocracoke nearly forty minutes later. From the ferry terminal, it was about twelve miles down through more national sea shore land to the village of Ocracoke, a village of about eight hundred permanent residents.There are no franchises or chains in the village. It is an unpretentious place full of charm. Our motel overlooks the marina which is known as Silver Lake. Travelling the streets of the village is slow because there are lots of bicycles, pedestrians, and golf carts. The roads are also narrow.

Our first stop after checking in was the Ocracoke Lighthouse which we can see across the harbor from our motel window. Built in 1823, it is only 77 feet tall and is painted solid white. It is built a little off center with one side more steeply shaped than the other. The keepers had to keep the covering up on the brick lighthouse, a stucco type substance made of quicklime, salt, powdered whiting, ground rice in boiling water, and glue which they mixed and applied hot.

After a drive around the village, we parked back at the hotel and walked down to waterside restaurant where we enjoyed fish and chips while sitting under an umbrella by the water listening to the live music and watching the sea gulls beg for food and harangue the diners. But the gulls were out of luck because it is against the law to feed them around an eating establishment.

On the way back to our sunset viewing on the balcony, we found some homemade peach ice cream which was just about as good as ours is. We settled into our Adirondack chairs and watched the show.

Pineywoods, Swamps, Ocean!

Last night we snagged the last room at the Holiday Inn Express in Henderson. We were ready for an early tuck-in. This day we headed east following the Lafayette Trail, one of North Carolina's scenic byways.


The trip began with a little rolling countryside through farms and forests. We passed acre after acre of small tobacco plants, cotton fields, and corn fields with a lot of old houses and small villages thrown in passing through Warrenton, Essex, Brinkleyville, Halifax, Crowell Crossroads, Scotland Neck, St. John, and Murfreesboro finding ourselves on one road named Flea Hill Road before we arrived at the Great Dismal State Park.

When we drove into Halifax, we saw a sign for the annual Cattleman's Association Beef dinners. As we were leaving town, we followed the signs to the agricultural center where a group of men were cooking and a group of women and young people were slicing, selling, and delivering. We enjoyed talking to them. They were cooking 2200 pounds of beef. We also got some good tips on the Outer Banks from one of the women. We tucked our boxed lunches into the back of the Escape and headed back toward the Great Dismal.

We ate our lunch which was really good and tender overlooking the Great Dismal Canal which used to be used for commerce. Now it is part of the intracoastal waterway. It is not a very wide canal, so its uses are limited. When the yellow flies decided they wanted to have me for lunch, we moved on down to the state park taking a nice hike on the boardwalk through the Great Dismal. The swamp got its name because it was so dense that the early settlers did not think anyone could survive there. George Washington, though, saw great economic hope in the swamp and purchased about four thousand acres of it. About sixty percent of the swamp is in northeast North Carolina; the other forty, Virginia.
With the swamp behind us, we found HWY 158 once again and headed toward the ocean. We have decided that the Outer Banks is suffering from the blight of all coastal communities: over development. The ocean, however is still here and there are lighthouses to discover.

A Day Living in History in Old Salem

Pleasant morning air greeted us as we headed out of the Holiday Inn for our visit to Old Salem, an area settled by the Moravians in the early eighteen hundreds. We drove past Wake Forest University as we went into town.

We entered through a large visitor's center replete with numerous exhibits and shops, but we opted to save all that for the afternoon. We entered the area through a functional replica of an old covered bridge. Our first stop was a museum of furniture and home furniture from the early Southern states where we saw pieces which varied from the primitive to the ornate.

Exiting the museum, we next stopped at the gunsmith shop where a man was working on the stock of a long rifle in order to fit on the metal parts that he had already cast. He and Klep had a good talk about the intricacies of constructing a gun from scratch and also about the Moravians' history of pacifism. For a century, their young men avoided service because the church paid the government extra tax, but in the Civil War Era, this ended.

The tavern was next. We enjoyed talking to the enactor of proprietor who explained the moneys in use right after the revolution. We walked through all the rooms, even the one where George Washington stayed. He had a room, not just bed space. Up and down three floors and down to the basement to the kitchen gave us a good appetite for dinner next door at the tavern annex which used to be additional rooms. Klep had a sauerkraut stew and I had the Moravian meatloaf with sauteed vegetables out of the garden which were all delicious. The real star of the meal were the muffins, rolls, and butter. We regretted being too full to order the gingerbread and lemon ice cream.

A retired printer took us through the print shop and photography exhibit before we went on to the Single Brothers House. We got a better understanding of the choir system which the Moravians have in their church. We also heard a beautiful organ which was actually originally in the house where everyone met together. This building also had demonstrations of many of the crafts that the single men were trained in.

We dropped in at the bakery, relished the smell, and got a treat for later before going to the doctor's house and apothecary. The doctor actually owned a slave which was frowned on by the church because generally, it was the church which owned property and not individuals. The other slaves in the settlement were actually owned by the Moravian Church as was all the property.

The Home Moravian Church was our next stop. Since the church is still an active, functioning church, one of its members does the talk here at certain times of the day. We came away with a much clearer understanding of the history of the Moravians which goes back to John Russ, a Catholic priest burned for heresy in the early 1400's because he translated the hymns into the heart language of his people and translated the scriptures. The history of strong congregation participation still remains today. Education is also an important aspect of their belief which led to their being pioneers in the education of women in the new world.

Salem College, the oldest college for women in the U.S. has its campus in Old Salem and we walked by many of its buildings.

Historic Saint Philips Church, a church constructed after segregation in worship started in the eighteen hundreds was our next stop. It is the oldest African American church still standing in North Carolina.

We walked back to the visitor's center, chatted with a woman working there, picked up some lemon cookies and headed to the car. Neither of us minded sitting down for awhile as we rode through the gently rolling farms and small towns on Hwy 158 toward our destination of the night - Henderson.

Searching for Mayberry in Mount Airy, North Carolina

Eight days out from the summer solstice, the sun rose early in north central North Carolina. By nine o'clock we were checked out of the Hampton Inn and headed to the Visitors' Center in historical Mount Airy. The woman at the center was extremely helpful, equipped us with a map, marked things she thought we would find interesting, and sent us on our way.

As we all know, The Andy Griffith Show was filmed on a set in Hollywood, but the hometown of the star grew up in Mount Airy. Many of the things that showed up in the show were from this town. One of the things that makes the show special so that it still survives in reruns is that the people were actually based on real people. By the time we had begun our exploration of the downtown area, we had already concluded that much of the sprawl and commercial growth that have effected most other medium sized towns in the South had also occurred here. We laughingly referred to the Opie McDonalds.

Old fashioned charm still mixes in with the commercialization of all things Mayberry. Many stately older homes hearkening back to the early nineteen hundreds still line the streets in good shape. The people are friendly and outgoing. Is there a layer of efforts to play up for the tourists and make a little money? Yes, but not to the extent that you find most places. Prices, generally, appear to be pretty reasonable.

Most of the quaint businesses including a real, honest to goodness hardware store, Floyd's Barbershop, and the Snappy Lunch are located in a few short blocks downtown. Floyd (the real one, not the actor) still cuts hair, but his haircut costs eight dollars instead of a quarter. Snappy Lunch (actually mentioned in some early shows) offers its famous pork chop sandwich for four dollars. I had mine without the chili and onions; Klep had his with the chili, onions, coleslaw, and tomato.

At the end of the shops of interests is the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History which is housed in a three story building which started its life as a hardware store. Our guide books told us, much to our disappointment, that the museum was not open on Mondays. We learned at the visitors' center that they had decided to open through the summer. The first floor exhibits objects from native Americans dating back to 2000 B.C. I found the native house constructed of slabs of tree bark interesting as well as the collection of spear and arrow heads. In the south gallery the settlement of the area, a log cabin, communities in the hollows, and early commerce was covered. One corner was devoted to a picturesque general store. In the west gallery is a huge model railroad showing models of all the communities on the railroad.

Downstairs in the basement we saw some granite outcroppings that the builders left when the building was constructed. A huge marble quarry has been mined for a century north of town. Klep enjoyed the antique fire engines, but I could not talk him into sliding down the fire pole.

The second floor had some exhibits devoted to famous people from Mount Airy including singer Donna Fargo (I'm the Happiest Girl in the USA) who started life as Yvonne Vaughn and Andy Griffith. A Victorian exhibit and children's toys completed the exhibits on this level.

The third floor had a nice Model T Ford and a quilt exhibit that was just going up. We walked up into the tower from this floor and gazed out over the mountains which surround Mount Airy on all sides, the most spectacular being Pilot Mountain which has a unique shape.

After we had our lunch at the Snappy Lunch, we visited the hardware store, drove
down to Wally's Service Station where the tours in the 1962 Ford Galaxy police cars begin. Our next stop was the Gertrude Smith House.


The house was completed in 1903 with three floors and a basement on a very large corner lot by Jefferson Davis Smith who came to Mount Airy from Greensboro and raised his family of seven children in the house. He owned and operated the general store and owned a great deal of real estate. One of his daughters, Gertrude attended the Parsons School of Design. She never married and returned home to take care of her aging parents. She did interior design in Mount Airy and in Greensboro as well as help with the family business. Two of her brothers who were both doctors also did not marry.

A Baptist Church came to Mr. Smith and asked him to sell them enough land to build a small building. He agreed with the stipulation that they not block the view of the mountains nor build right up to the property line. Both of these things they ignored, placing the building right on the property line and blocked the view. Years later after Mr. Smith died the church went to Gertrude in an effort to buy the rest of the land. Gertrude answered "Hell,no!" and got the house put on the National Historic Registry.

When Gertrude died at age 90, her younger married sister and her daughters flew into Greensboro from Atlanta, hired a limousine, and showed up for the funeral and will reading. After the will was read and she discovered that she inherited nothing from her sister, she headed back to Atlanta on the bus.

Gertrude left the house and everything in it to be used as a living museum.Nothing has been added or taken away from the house. Her money in a foundation has been able to keep this beautiful house and its grounds as a place people can visit with no admittance charge.

We took another quick drive through Mount Airy, found Hwy 52 and headed into the edge of the piedmont in Winston Salem. As we traveled, we saw Pilot Mountain in the distance.

We decided that the sprit of Mayberry is there in Mount Airy in the hearts of its people.

North Carolina: Road Trip 2012

If it is June, it must be road trip time for us. Thursday morning, we loaded the car, headed up the interstate, and spent two days at the house in Winegar Hollow so that Klep could attend the Cumberland Gap Homecoming and genealogical conference. I enjoyed two serene days of birdsong, reading, sewing, and watching the ground hog in the meadow. This morning, we loaded up, closed the house and headed across the mountains to North Carolina.

Sections of North Carolina are already in our "checked off" column. This includes much of the Western North Carolina with places like Waynesville, Sliding Rock, and Ashville. We have also made numerous trips into Randolph County shopping for pottery. We had never really "done" the northern section of the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Outer Banks. These were definitely on the to do list.


We left Tennessee on Hwy 395 from Erwin. At the top of the mountain it morphed into North Carolina 197, a two lane highway which descended and then climbed again through small hamlets, past farms, mountain streams,small country churches and through mile after mile of tree tunnels curving and twisting as it went. The temperature was a mild 72 degrees and for much of this part of the trip, we had the road to ourselves. We enjoyed the wild chicory, bright clear blue, orange day lillies, sweet peas, and Queen Anne's Lace. In Poplar Grove we passed a Church of the Brethren which used to be quite common in this region. Brummet's Creek, Tipton Hill, Red Hill, Toe Cane--all were on our way to the parkway which we entered near Spruce Pine.

The parkway gifted us with blooming mountain laurel, wild azaleas, and wild hydrangea. The rhododendrons at the elevation of more than four thousand feet are not blooming yet. We shared the parkway with numerous other tourists including bikers, motorcycles, and other cars. We saw at least 100 motorcyclist enjoying navigating the twists and turns as the skimmed along the top of the ridge looking down on mile after mile of mountains rolling off to the horizon.

At the Linville Falls Visitor's Center we stopped and hiked to the falls on Dugger's Creek instead of taking the longer hike to the large falls. Thunder was rolling in the distance and we really did not want to get caught out in a storm. Neither did we really want to hike for two miles. We saw some laurel that was in its prime when we walked down to the stream.

At mile marker 290 we pulled into an overlook as the storm overtook us. Looking toward the mountains, all we could see was the cloud and rain. The mountains were totally hidden. The temperature dropped ten degrees. Fifteen minutes more and the rain had eased enough for us to pull back onto the road and head north where we passed the point where Daniel Boone cut a swath through the mountains as he headed west toward East Tennessee.

We stopped at a craft center and browsed just before we were surprised by a detour off the parkway. We descended to Sparta, briefly crossed into Virginia, and headed down Hwy 89 toward Mt. Airy. We were thrilled to find blooming rhododendron as we moved down in elevation to below 2000 ft.

After passing field after field of cabbages, large rolling pastures, and numerous Christmas tree farms, we are tucked in for the night in the town that inspired Andy Griffith's Mayberry. Tomorrow we will play tourist.